Add a password to a PDF
Lock a PDF so only people with the password can open it: a salary slip for a landlord, ID proofs for an agent, a contract for a client. The file is encrypted in your browser, and neither it nor the password is ever uploaded.
Free. No account. Files are opened inside your browser and never uploaded.
How to password-protect a PDF
- Click Open a PDF to lock above, then the big button on the page that opens, and choose the file.
- Type the password twice.
- Click Lock & download. The downloaded copy asks for the password every time it is opened. Your original file is not changed.
Any edits you made first, such as a signature, white-out or page numbers, are included in the locked copy. In the editor the same tool is under More › Add password.
How strong is it?
The file is encrypted with AES-256, the strongest method the PDF standard has and the only one it still recommends. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Adobe Acrobat and Reader, and the usual PDF viewers on Android phones and iPhones open it. A short or obvious password is still easy to guess, so use six characters or more.
Send the password separately from the file: by phone or a different app, not in the same email.
Questions
I forgot the password. Can you recover it?
No. The password never leaves your device, so there is nothing anyone can look up. Keep the original file until you are sure the locked copy opens.
Can I stop people printing or copying, but let them open it?
Not with PDF Desk. That kind of restriction is only honoured by some readers and is easy to strip, so a password to open the file is the protection offered here.
How do I remove a password later?
Open the file here, type the password, and download it. See remove a PDF password.
Free. No account. Files are opened inside your browser and never uploaded.